The Detroit Red Wings are heading toward their season opener against the New York Rangers with a roster that’s starting to settle in, even if a few important pieces are still unresolved.
Todd McLellan has already spent plenty of time mixing and matching during a shortened preseason, and the combinations have begun to stick. The schedule came fast because the new CBA trimmed the number of preseason games to make room for the new 84-game season, so Detroit hasn’t had much time to experiment. Even so, the picture for opening night is getting clearer.
At the back end, the projection starts with Simon Edvinsson and Moritz Seider as the top pair in front of John Gibson. Albert Johansson and Justin Faulk follow, with Daniil Tarasov behind Gibson. Ben Chiarot, Axel Sandin-Pellikka, William Wallinder, and Jacob Bernard-Docker fill out the remaining defensive spots in the projected group.
Dylan Larkin is still expected to be in the lineup when the season begins, and until that changes, he belongs in the opening-night forecast. With him at 1C, the forward group takes on a much cleaner shape. The idea is a top scoring line that will carry a heavy load, a second line with the kind of versatility Todd McLellan compared to his Arvidsson-Philip Danault-Trevor Moore group in Los Angeles, a third line built to provide balanced offense against lower-end opposition, and a fourth line designed to be hard to play against while keeping chances against to a minimum.
That structure looks tidy on paper. The real issue is whether Detroit can score enough.
The Red Wings scored 239 goals in 2025-26, which ranked 22nd in the NHL, and 38 of those goals came from players who are no longer with the team. That leaves Detroit trying to replace departed production while also finding another gear offensively. There wasn’t a major scoring addition over the offseason, so the burden falls heavily on internal growth.
Marco Kasper is expected to bounce back from his sophomore slump, while Nate Danielson and Michael Brandsegg-Nygard have both stood out and could help with secondary scoring. Detroit needs that kind of progress because the offensive concerns go beyond even-strength play.
The power play has its own hole to fill with Patrick Kane gone from the right flank, where so much of the setup ran through him over the last three seasons. Early in the preseason, Lucas Raymond and Alex DeBrincat were used on the PP1 flanks. Whether that look sticks, or whether Detroit shifts to something with a more traditional net-front presence, is one of the quicker decisions the club has to make.
The bottom six also needs a cleaner identity this season. Last year, the third and fourth lines were a jumble of energy players, shutdown types, and forwards who didn’t have enough offense to climb higher.
The result was an offensive dead zone. This projected setup is supposed to fix that by giving the third line room to create and the fourth line a more defined job focused on matchups, physical play, and limiting chances.
Defensively, Detroit should be better equipped to handle the season. Seider and Edvinsson return as the team’s clear top pair, and both are capable of handling all situations against elite competition. They’re expected to log heavy minutes again, with the possibility of pushing past 25 minutes per night.
Faulk’s full year should help as well, especially with his contract year adding another layer to the season. He’s spent much of the preseason alongside Johansson, and that pairing could give Detroit a smooth-skating, two-way option that eases the load when needed. Chiarot, meanwhile, fits well in third-pair minutes, whether he’s next to Bernard-Docker, Wallinder, or Sandin-Pellikka.
The toughest roster call in this projection is Carter Mazur. With Danielson, Sandin-Pellikka, Wallinder, Mason Appleton, and Michael Rasmussen in the mix, one player had to be the odd man out, and Mazur is the one projected to go. The view here is that Rasmussen should be the cut, but Mazur being waived is the more likely outcome at this point.
Theo Rochette, Anton Johansson, and Michal Postava have all made a strong enough impression to merit a look in Detroit, but they’re likely headed to Grand Rapids to start the year.
What it all adds up to is a Red Wings team with a much more defined shape than last season, but still plenty left to prove. Gibson has to match his strong 2025-26 performance, Tarasov has to give them dependable spot starts, and the defense has to use its added depth while Seider and Edvinsson drive the group from the top.
Above all, Detroit has to score more at five-on-five. The established scorers need to deliver, the younger forwards need to help replace what left in the offseason, and the bottom six has to become more than just a collection of mismatched parts.
That’s all possible. Whether it’s probable is another matter.
The Red Wings have enough talent to stay in the playoff conversation, but how far they go will depend on whether those internal gains turn into real production once the games start counting.
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